


Illuminate

by Archangel67



Category: Avengers (Comics), Supernatural
Genre: Crossover, Lostiel, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-08
Updated: 2012-07-08
Packaged: 2017-11-09 10:52:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/454644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archangel67/pseuds/Archangel67
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While searching for Gabriel, Castiel encounters Loki.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Illuminate

**Author's Note:**

> Written for all the people who have been complaining that there aren't any Lostiel fics. This is fairly generic and I may write more in the future depending on whether people are interested or not and how inspired I happen to be.

Angels usually tended to stay out of other people’s business.

Villains arose, people died, and the world kept spinning. It wasn’t their place to intervene unless it was directly commanded of them and Castiel had his hands full enough with the Winchesters. Besides, Heaven was in a state of disrepair, God had fallen silent, and an increasing number of his brethren were going rogue. A distressingly high number of them were dying. It was difficult to face the fact that his brothers and sisters, entities who he had known from the moment of their creation, were falling like precariously stacked dominos.

When they died, their consciousness severed from this plane of reality, it was like losing a piece of himself. Each and every one of them were connected, the soft whisper of voices a constant companion within his mind at all times. Rather… they had been with him until he had been forced to cut his ties, to hide himself. That didn’t keep him from feeling the pain of losing yet another friend, yet another ally.

He had been told that Gabriel was gone, but he had never seen his brother’s body. By the time he arrived at the hotel, there were only the sad broken corpses of pagan gods, creatures who were no more powerful than angels themselves. There had been smudges of ash, but no sign of wings, no sign of his brother. As far as he was concerned, Gabriel had simply gone once more into hiding, too cowardly to face the coming storm.

Sometimes Castiel wished that he could do the same… especially when he came back from oblivion to find that Sam had shown just how brave he truly was. Lucifer was caged again. Michael was subdued. There were other matters that he would have to attend to now, and so he had been forced to leave Dean on his own to make a normal life for himself.

…

It was miserable, to only be able to watch the hunter from afar as he struggled with assimilation into society compounded with his brother’s departure. Castiel wanted so badly to be able to go to him, to promise that everything would be alright, but he was unwilling to speak such blatant lies. Things wouldn’t be alright… Sam was suffering for something that was not his fault. He was just another pawn.

It was not long after this that he heard rumors of one calling himself Loki, wreaking havoc on the East Coast. He was becoming increasingly tangled in the troubling politics of Heaven, but the name had caught his attention. Over the centuries his brother had gone by many names… Hermes, Anansi, Coyote. Loki was just another of those names, borrowed to hide amongst humans, to avoid the responsibility which he so loathed.

Hope had sparked for the first time in a long time. If Gabriel was truly alive, Castiel knew that his temperamental brother would stand with him against Raphael’s dictatorship. While he was already well aware of Gabriel’s antics on Earth, his mischievous elder brother had never been violent. These rumors stated that one who called himself Loki was threatening large gatherings of humans, even killing… It sounded nothing like the archangel, but he was willing to investigate nonetheless.

He was running out of options.

…

Castiel had managed to track down the one who was calling himself Loki. It had become apparent to the angel very quickly that this man was not Gabriel. He certainly wasn’t an angel, but he wasn’t human either…

They met face to face for the first time within a building which looked as if it should have been abandoned but which was teeming with people. All of their eyes had a sort of odd glow to them and they were far too caught up in what they were doing to even notice him. In the distance, looking bored as he lounged against the metal railing of a raised platform was the one he had come in search of. Castiel could feel the power oozing off of him, the complete alien nature of this creature who looked so like a man and yet was nothing like one. In his right hand he held an elegant weapon whose faint glow illuminated his pale skin and devious eyes.

Only one of the blue-eyed thralls, a sinewy man carrying a bow, bothered to look at him at all as he moved through their ranks. Before the angel could reach the far edge of the room where Loki stood, there was an arrowed leveled at him and ready to be loosed.

“Stop. He means me no harm.” The black haired man had spoken, his voice carrying great weight despite how smooth and calm it was. Green eyes had turned to focus on the angel, glancing to the archer and waving an idle hand to dismiss him. “Go. Find some better way to bide your time, Barton. I don’t need a guardian.”

Castiel frowned.

“You aren’t him,” he said as he tilted his head, squinting blue eyes sharply as he looked across the open space at the Asgardian.

“I may be him,” the lesser god stated with a jaunty, amused smile. “I do suppose it all depends on just who him is. For that matter, who are you? Such a delicate thing. Fragile. Wearing a body which isn’t even yours… It’s like a cheap suit. It can barely contain you. Look how it’s already begun to fray.”

Loki had straightened up and pushed away from the railing, walking a slow path around the trench coated angel who stood quite still, merely following the other man with his eyes as he circled like a vulture. Finally he stopped, standing so very close to him that it made the angel immediately think of all the times Dean had scolded him for invading the hunter’s personal space. Not stopping there, he leaned in closer, wanting to get a good look at the celestial being before he rocked back on his heels and laughed under his breath.

“You really ought to look into getting a better handle on your mind. You’re an open book, you pathetic fool. Shame neither of them see it. They might have figured you out long ago if only they were a bit more perceptive… Ah, no. You know it to be true.” Loki was quick to cut Castiel off as he opened his mouth to protest, one hand coming up to place a finger over the angel’s lips. “Cas. Is that what they call you? Such an undignified name for an angel. It’s as if they fancy you to be their pet. How darling. If only they had a proper leash.”

“I am no man’s pet,” Castiel grumbled, not as overwhelmed by the god looking into his mind as Loki might have hoped. He was used to that sort of unspoken communication, it happened constantly between angels. A door opened both ways, however. By prodding at Castiel’s mind, the angel was able to glean a little about him as well. “Although you seem to be.”

That gave the god pause. Loki smirked.

“Why are you here, little bird?”

“I came in search of my brother,” Castiel stated.

“I am afraid if that is the case, I am not the one you are looking for.”

“…Obviously.” He took a deep breath, trying not to let the god’s snide remarks get to him. There was something inadvertently infuriating about the way Loki was looking at him, that cool yet curious way he regarded Castiel. As if he was little more than an insect. “You’ve stolen his name.”

“I think you may have gotten your facts turns around,” Loki laughed. “If anyone’s identity has been pilfered, it’s mine. What happened to this brother of yours? I daresay I should speak to him if he’s been flaunting my name for his personal gain.”

Castiel looked away. “Dead, or at least that is what I’ve been told.”

“Condolences.”

After coming all of this way, he had found nothing. This was becoming an increasingly common phenomenon. One which he was not at all fond of. Catching sight of the archer who was standing just far enough away as to be mostly inconspicuous, Castiel made a soft sound. “What is wrong with all of these people?”

“There is nothing wrong. They’ve been freed of their concerns. They serve me now.”

“That sounds unethical.”

“Depends whose ethics you’re going by,” he stated. “Besides, don’t you lot go by that whole judge not rhetoric? I’ve never actually spoken to one of you before, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know of you. I thought you knew better than to meddle in the affairs of those who stood outside of your realm.”

“I didn’t come here because of what you’ve been doing,” Castiel growled. “Although if you continue to torment my Father’s people, I may. I just… I needed to see if you were Gabriel.”

“Your brother. No. He may not be dead, but he is not here.”

Shaking his head, Castiel turned to leave. He had only just started away when he felt the tip of something sharp against his spine. Slowly he looked back to see Loki standing just behind him, the wickedly keen tip of his weapon pointed at the center of his back.

“Not so fast.”

With a sigh, the angel turned to face the god, giving him a weary look.

“I have no further business with you,” Castiel said bluntly.

“Perhaps not, but I have business with you. Power such as yours could be useful.”

As the tip of the weapon was poised against his sternum, Castiel just stared at the green eyed god. Loki looked from the weapon to the angel’s face and back again, his broad smile wilting. Pulling the weapon back, the asgardian grimaced, clutching it tighter.

“Why…?”

Reaching out so quickly that Loki didn’t have a chance to pull it away, Castiel took the short, pointed staff from him and turned it over in his own hands. This technology was not of Earth. It wasn’t anything like an angelic weapon either. It was something he had never seen. If what Loki said was true and he had taken control of these people, this must have been the thing which allowed him to do it.

Castiel smiled faintly.

“Sorry. I don’t take commands any more. Especially not from someone like you.”

And without another word, the angel was gone, the weapon clattering to the ground.

…

Loki had yet to encounter someone who could withstand the power of the staff. All of the others had fallen easily, their simple minds twisted inside out by the things which they were shown. This one had been different.

This one had been special.

The trickster released a breath he had not even realized that he was holding as he lowered the Chitauri weapon. This would not be the last time that he encountered the angel. Not if he had anything to say about it.

“Hide away little bird. No matter how far you fly, I will find you.”


End file.
